As a reader of Mondoweiss, you probably know the recent history of pro-Israel smear campaigns.
Pick your favorite. Chas Freeman, Chuck Hagel. Charles W. Percy. Earl Hilliard. Paul Findley. If you were a lawmaker who criticized the U.S./Israel relationship, you could expect attacks. If you were an incumbent lawmaker, you might also expect a pro-Israel lobbying group like AIPAC to target your seat. After all, Israel was a third rail and you couldn’t risk the potential for electrocution.
This kind of mudslinging has become less and less effective, especially amid the genocide in Gaza and a deeper awareness of the Israel Lobby. However, the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York City sure felt like the coup de grâce.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made his support for Israel a central issue of his campaign, while Mamdani didn’t stop voicing his support for Palestinians. The exit polls indicate that Cuomo’s Israel stance hurt him at the ballot box, while Mamdani’s criticism of Israel helped him. The writing had been on the wall for awhile, as Democratic voters have completely flipped on this issue, but until that NYC race, we hadn’t seen the issue translate tangible political results.
Pro-Israel websites and right-wing rags sounded the usual alarms about Jewish safety and terrorist sympathies, but nothing stuck.
“I think Cuomo’s attempt to Israelize the election is going to backfire,” political consultant Peter Feld told me months before the elections. “This could actually help give Mamdani further strength to overtake him. If that happens, I think it’s going to set the table for some of the primaries next year.”
And here we are.
On June 2, Dr. Adam Hamawy cruised Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 12th district. He traveled to Gaza on medical missions during the genocide.
“We should not be funding foreign militaries or making arms sales to countries committing gross human rights violations,” declared his campaign website. “I support cutting off military aid to these countries, including Israel.”
Naturally, attacks followed.
The smear campaign launched against Hamawy was a throwback to the height of the “War on Terror,” back when such tactics had a high success rate. The combat surgeon was accused of having a close relationship with Omar Abdel Rahman, better known as the Blind Sheikh. In his 20s, Hamawy accompanied the cleric on a road trip from New Jersey to Michigan, where Abdel-Rahman spoke at a conference.
After that trip, Hamawy was called as a defense witness to refute testimony from the federal government’s main witness, Emad Salem. Salem, an FBI informant who was paid $1 million by the U.S. government and admitted to lying under oath, claimed the Sheik had asked him to assassinate the former president of Egypt. Hamawy testified that he never heard Abdel Rahman say that.
Hamawy shrugged off the criticisms as bad faith.
“Any Muslim is going to be called a terrorist at some point, and these tropes are outdated and worn,” said Hamawy “Unfortunately, they continue to be used right now. These are not serious arguments, and they’re getting old.”
The election proved he was right, but Israel advocates coping with the results are continuing to embrace the aforementioned narrative.
“Despite past terror ties, Hamawy prevails with narrow plurality in N.J. Dem primary,” declares a headline at Jewish Insider.
“Hamawy, with the support of left-wing groups, some progressive lawmakers and the anti-Israel American Priorities super PAC, prevailed over his opponents with regional bases but limited support outside their local communities,” the piece argues.
Is there anyone who takes these ridiculous sentiments seriously?
You don’t have to be a cracked, investigative journalist to figure out what Democratic voters think about Israel outside of New Jersey’s 12th district. Just take a look at any recent poll. A May 2026 NBC News poll, shows that 67 percent of Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis and only 13 percent have a positive view of Israel. An August 2025 Quinnipiac poll found that 77 percent of Democrats think Israel is committing genocide. A a May 2026 New York Times/Siena poll found that just 8% of Democrats strongly support Israel getting more military aid from the U.S.
This isn’t “limited support” confined to a “regional” area. It’s where the Democratic base currently sits.
“As the gap between the will of Democratic voters and its leadership grows more and more apparent, our media will continue to vaguely acknowledge this ‘division’ without identifying the actual source of it,” writes Adam Johnson in The Intercept. “It’s not between the voters themselves, whose opinions are measurable and consistent, but between the voters and the leaders they elected — in theory — to represent their interests.
The same week that Hamawy won, New York’s Israel Day Parade was held. Mamdani was smeared for being the first Mayor to declare that he would not attend. Again, the attacks gained no traction, but in the days after the parade it wasn’t the Mayor who had to defend his position, it was the liberal Zionists, who had to explain why they marched through the city with genocidal racists like Bezalel Smotrich.
Maybe a new third rail is being constructed and it’s the pro-Israel side that has to weigh the risks going forward.
Michael Arria
Michael Arria is Mondoweiss’ U.S. correspondents. He is the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC. Follow him on x at @michaelarria.
